Proper 10
July 15/16, 2023
St. Alfred's Episcopal Church
Teaching
Revised Common Lectionary
I offer you today a sermon on ears. Or rather using our ears to listen, to really hear.
It may be that I am hypersensitive to having ears to hear. When I got my hearing aids in 2011, and I could hear the birds singing in the morning, my life shifted, it changed.
It is a common criticism one hears (particularly from various Protestant denominations) that Episcopalians don't really take scripture seriously.
As an illustration to argue against that perception, I put before you today's readings from the Bible.
Since June 11th we've been hearing from the book of Genesis. In particular we have been hearing from the story of Abraham. Each week we have heard a small part of a much larger story.
For a psalm today, we have heard one small part of a much larger psalm -- in fact the longest psalm among the 150 we have in the Bible. It focuses on praise and exaltation of the Torah, the word of Yahweh, the directions from God on living a life worth living.
For the reading from the New Testament we hear the continuation of a portion of Paul's letter to the Romans. We began that series of readings on June 11 -- the same as for the reading from Genesis.
That day in June we also began a consecutive series of readings from the Gospel of Matthew. We started with chapter 9, with the calling of disciples. We have listened to various vignettes from Jesus' ministry with those disciples. There have been healings and teachings. Today we are in chapter 13, a parable with an explanation of the parable.
I want to give a bit of teaching about the Revised Common Lectionary that we use to tell us what lessons to use on Sunday morning.
How do we get such a massive dose of Scripture? What's it all about?
It all started in the 1960's with a broad movement in liturgical churches to get more serious about listening to scripture. Instead of having one set of readings for each day of the church year, the readings were spread out over 3 years. Exposing us to 3 times the amount of scripture we had formerly known -- e.g. in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.
The readings from the Old Testament were generally chosen to reflect the theme of what was read in the Gospel of the day, sometimes for the broader theme of the particular Sunday.
This arrangement is reflected in the Book of Common Prayer found in the pews in front of you.
Basic principles
Beginning in the 1980's, there was a growing awareness that there was a weakness in the basic structure. The choice of Old Testament reading was dependent on the New Testament.
What that meant was that the Old Testament was not allowed to speak on its own terms. It was dependent on and derivative from the New Testament.
A revision was made to allow the OT to speak on its own. It would be read "in course" over many weeks in the same way that passages from the New Testament and the Gospels were read.
Such a method for reading would allow the different parts of the Bible to speak in their own voice, with their own themes and patterns.
Adjustments to this scheme were made for special times and seasons such as Advent/Christmas, Lent/Easter. Also some smaller adjustments were made in the selections to allow women's voices and experiences to come more to the forefront.
The revised form of the lectionary is not reflected in the Book of Common Prayer in the pews -- although it would be there if you bought a new prayer book today.
OT is distinctive
The reason I think that the revised lectionary is so important is because of the first readings.
There are several things that are particularly distinctive about what Christians call the "Old Testament". Jews call that book "The Bible". It is their scripture, their sacred text.
It is the only "sacred Text" that I am aware of that is scripture for 2 different religions.
We're not as different as the experiences of the past 2,000 years would suggest.
Why the teaching?
The Hebrew Scriptures
-- many people refer to the Old Testament that way in order to reflect that it doesn't belong exclusively to Christianity -- the Hebrew Scriptures are also held in high regard by Muslims. It's just that it is not divinely revealed the way the Qu'ran is.
There are 3 religions that each look to Abraham as their "Father". He is the first of the Patriarchs.
I believe that events of the 20th century have pushed a reckoning over the relationship of these religions. And thus, also, a change in the way we read and hear the Hebrew Scriptures.
It's time to listen with different ears. So let us listen, however briefly, to the book of Genesis.
Listening to Genesis
Turning to Genesis in particular, the source of today's reading, it is made up of 2 great sagas, or family stories: that of Abraham and that of his great-grandson Joseph.
Of course, you are aware that the book literally begins with creation -- thus the title "Genesis". But the real beginning is at chapter 12. We began reading that on June 11. We will continue into September, adding Exodus until October.
The underlying point of it all is the relationship of our forebears with the One God, creator of everything.
Even though the book of Genesis doesn't start with Abraham, that's where the family story begins. God sends Abraham away from his familiar home to a new land.
Abraham is the father of humanity's relationship with God.
There is humanity. And there is God. And we are called into relationship with God and with one another.
One of the things it means is that humanity is not divided up into different religions, or even different cultures or races.
These stories in Genesis tell us that -- among other things.
Elie Wiesel said that "God made man because he loves stories."
There is another ancient Jewish story about the rabbi and the student who asked about creation. "Why did God make all humans out of just one man?" The rabbi replied that God made all humans from one man so that no one could ever say, "My father is better than your father."
To listen with new ears means taking that seriously.
Listening to Paul with new ears
Turning to the New Testament reading, we hear an excerpt from Paul's longer and complex treatise known as the letter to the Romans.
Translation
I have found that I often need to listen to Paul's writings in different translations. There have been so many theologians over the course of so many centuries who have interpreted Paul for the church that I find it challenging to hear the voice of Paul himself.
One of the most recent translations that is authorized by the Episcopal Church for use in our liturgies is the Common English Bible.
Living by the Power of God's Spirit is how the CEB titles today's reading. The last part reads:
9 You are no longer ruled by your desires, but by God's Spirit, who lives in you. People who don't have the Spirit of Christ in them don't belong to him. 10 But Christ lives in you. So you are alive because God has accepted you, even though your bodies must die because of your sins. 11 Yet God raised Jesus to life! God's Spirit now lives in you, and he will raise you to life by his Spirit.
Paul consistently gives us a word of freedom
All too often I have heard the theologians speak in a voice of "Do this!" "Do that!"
I continually try to hear with new ears.
Be invigorating. Be life-giving. Be full of the Spirit. That's what Paul's specifically talking about in today's reading. Showing us that through Christ there is life not death.
The Holy Spirit, within us, Christ living in us, ... now. That brings life to us where once there were selfish desires, living only for ourselves. That's worth hearing.
Listening to the Gospel with new ears.
Let us turn lastly to the reading from the Gospel according to Matthew. The parable of the sower.
Parable as conversion
I for one can see all too clearly that there are many around us, throughout the world, whose "minds are ruled by (their) desires." The Gospel gives us a remedy for that.
"If you have ears to hear -- then use them, listen, hear.
My most important lesson about parables came from a student many years ago, when I was trying to teach a class about parables. The student said something like "parable" sounds like "parabola". Stories and Math equations. How can they be related? It turns out they are related -- at least for me.
That it resonates as much as it does may in part because I am married to a mathematician. And I may have to insert here a little teaching. It would be better if I had a chalk and blackboard.
Consider a simple formula for a parabola: x=y2.
Mathematical equations can sometimes be graphed. (mime this part)
- x / y axis
- a simple equation for a parabola would be
- x=y2 1
Parables and parabolas are about blissfully going down the road in one direction, and then abruptly changing direction.
Many have written in the last century or so in a new way about parables. Matthew the gospel writer reflects in today's readings the old way we were accustomed to listening to parables.
You would tell a story and then you would ask, "What does it mean?" Ideally there would be a nice clean explanation of meaning. That's what we get in the gospel passage today.
But what if that's not why Jesus taught in parables? What if the reason he taught in parables was that he wanted his hearers to change their lives?
My own sense is that that's why we tell stories generally and why Jesus told them in particular.
Stories have the power to change lives.
Stories can cause us to change the direction of our life. A change of heart. An insight that moves to a decision.
A story can provide hospitality or healing to those in need or they can feed those who are hungry. Stories can point the way to a life of integrity and courage.
A theologian of the last century told a story. It was aimed at leading the hearer to a reformed and remade relationship with God.
Once upon a time there was a king who loved a humble maiden.
The king was like no other king. Every statesman trembled before his power. No one dared breathe a word against him, for he had the strength to crush all opponents. And yet this mighty king was melted by love for a humble maiden.
How could he declare his love for her? In an odd sort of way, his very kingliness tied his hands. If he brought her to the palace and crowned her head with jewels and clothed her body in royal robes, she would surely not resist—no one dared resist him. But would she love him?
She would say she loved him, of course, but would she truly? Or would she live with him in fear, nursing a private grief for the life she had left behind. Would she be happy at his side? How could he know?
If he rode to her forest cottage in his royal carriage, with an armed escort waving bright banners, that too would overwhelm her. He did not want a cringing subject. He wanted a lover, an equal. He wanted her to forget that he was a king and she a humble maiden and to let shared love cross over the gulf between them.
“For it is only in love that the unequal can be made equal,” concluded Kierkegaard. The king, convinced he could not elevate the maiden without crushing her freedom, resolved to descend. He clothed himself as a beggar and approached her cottage incognito, with a worn cloak fluttering loosely about him. It was no mere disguise, but a new identity he took on. He renounced the throne to win her hand. 2
For me, the lessons from scripture today are about listening with new ears, hearing so that our lives are changed -- if even in one small way. Of such things is the world itself transformed.
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2020/07/10/the-parables-of-christ-are-not-secret-codes-but-calls-to-conversion/↩
Link as quoted in Soren Kierkegaard's Disappointment with God. Various notes, including S.K.'s own elaboration in Philosophical Fragments - with a long quote from Phil. Frag.↩
